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Broadside Attack Alert |
The heinous, supremely foolish, and rights-destroying Induce Act (blogged here) was introduced to the Senate Wednesday as the Inducing Infringements of Copyright Act (IICA). The proposed bill is designed to make it easier to successfully sue file-sharing companies. It also would render illegal any technology or device that could possibly be used to infringe copyright. The reasoning seems to be as follows:
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The record industry has been unable to shut down the generation of post-Napster P2P companies, because under the law they embody legal uses.
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The solution is to change the law so this pernicious technology can be stamped out.
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After all, no industry should be forced to adapt to new technology. Congress to the rescue!
The bill's sponsor, Orinn Hatch, justifies the bill with a peculiar and evasive rationale:
In remarks on the Senate floor, Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch said peer-to-peer companies were exposing children to legal risks.
"It is illegal and immoral to induce or encourage children to commit crimes," said Hatch, who as chairman of the Judiciary Committee (news - web sites) oversees copyright matters.
This is his train of thought:
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Children have been caught in lawsuits by the RIAA for using P2P.
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Therefore, P2P harms children.
The trasncript of Senator Hatch's introduction is
here.
Ernest Miller has created a line-by-line
refutation of Hatch's introduction.
